Residents of Jarpu Village on the Myitkyina to Bhamo Road in Waingmaw Township, Kachin State, are concerned that gold mining being carried out with heavy machinery around the village could cause environmental damage.
Most of the population of Jarpu Village fled the Myanmar Army in about 2014 and has remained displaced since then. But, the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) drove out the army and took control of Jarpu Village and the surrounding areas following a 2024 offensive and the displaced villagers have started making plans to return.
But, gold miners are already operating in the area of the village. They are using heavy machinery, including backhoes and excavators to mine gold at the entrance of the village near the highway and at three other locations around the village, according to villagers.
A Jarpu Villager who wished to remain anonymous said to KNG: “We witnessed excessive mining, with activities extending to the village entrance. The mining area has now expanded close to the highway. Although gold mining was banned in past years, it has resumed now. We are worried about the damage to our village. Jarpu villagers are planning to return home this year.”
The identity of those behind the gold mining is unknown, though they are operating with the permission of the Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO), the political wing of the KIA.
Previously, gold mining had been banned around Jarpu Village, but it was allowed to resume in 2024 after the KIA took control of the village. According to villagers once the KIA took control of the Myitkyina to Bhamo road section near Jarpu Village gold mining activities along the road resumed on a larger scale than it ever was before being banned.
A few Jarpu villagers have already returned to their homes and are again farming in the area. But, most of the villagers are still unable to return home and are sheltering in internally displaced person’s (IDP) camps in Kachin State’s Myitkyina City, Waingmaw Town, and Mongnar Village in Waingmaw Township, Kachin State.
Gold mining in other KIA controlled areas has already caused environmental damage, for instance in Namsangyang Village, in Waingmaw Township on the road from Myitkyina close to Laiza Town where the KIO is headquartered.
Currently, most of Kachin State’s natural resource deposits are under the control of the KIO and locals are hoping that the KIO intervenes to regulate uncontrolled mining in the areas it controls.
